A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864Livingstone, David
History
A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864
Livingstone, David
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, Central -- Discovery and exploration
Owing to the strength of the wind, and the cranky state of the canoes, it
was late in the afternoon of the 11th before our party was ferried over
the Kafue. After crossing, we were in the Bawe country. Fishhooks here,
of native workmanship, were observed to have barbs like the European
hooks: elsewhere the point of the hook is merely bent in towards the
shank, to have the same effect in keeping on the fish as the barb. We
slept near a village a short distance above the ford. The people here
are of Batoka origin, the same as many of our men, and call themselves
Batonga (independents), or Balengi, and their language only differs
slightly from that of the Bakoa, who live between the two rivers Kafue
and Loangwa. The paramount chief of the district lives to the west of
this place, and is called Nchomokela--an hereditary title: the family
burying-place is on a small hill near this village. The women salute us
by clapping their hands and lullilooing as we enter and leave a village,
and the men, as they think, respectfully clap their hands on their hips.
Immense crops of mapira (_holcus sorghum_) are raised; one species of it
forms a natural bend on the seed-stalk, so that the massive ear hangs
down. The grain was heaped up on wooden stages, and so was a variety of
other products. The men are skilful hunters, and kill elephants and
buffaloes with long heavy spears. We halted a few minutes on the morning
of the 12th July, opposite the narrow island of Sikakoa, which has a
village on its lower end. We were here told that Moselekatse's chief
town is a month's distance from this place. They had heard, moreover,
that the English had come to Moselekatse, and told him it was wrong to
kill men; and he had replied that he was born to kill people, but would
drop the habit; and, since the English came, he had sent out his men, not
to kill as of yore, but to collect tribute of cloth and ivory. This
report referred to the arrival of the Rev. R. Moffat, of Kuruman, who, we
afterwards found, had established a mission. The statement is
interesting as showing that, though imperfectly expressed, the purport of
the missionaries' teaching had travelled, in a short time, over 300
miles, and we know not how far the knowledge of the English operations on
the coast spread inland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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